FILE PHOTO - Sockeye salmon fry released into Six Mile Creek, which flows into Okanagan Lake.

Image Credit: Shaylen Smith/ Okanagan Indian Band

Thousands of sockeye salmon released into Okanagan waters are making their way upstream to spawn in record numbers.

Each spring, the Okanagan Nation Alliance releases sockeye fry into Okanagan streams and rivers as part of its ongoing program to restore populations to the Okanagan and Columbia River Basin. The restoration project has been ongoing since the 1990s, said ONA senior fisheries biologist Rich Bussanich.

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“There’s sockeye in each of the lakes currently. There’s a good chunk of fish that made it into Osoyoos. There’s fish in Skaha and we know there’s retained catches of sockeye around Rattlesnake (Island) in Okanagan Lake as well, so they’re scattered throughout all the lakes,” Bussanich said.

Roughly 4.1 million fish were released in 2019 and are now returning to spawn. More than 660,000 fish were counted at the mouth of the Columbia River this year, with 80% of those being Okanagan salmon. This is the largest number of returning sockeye salmon since record keeping began in 1938, according to the ONA.

Those 477,000 Okanagan fish are being tracked at Wells dam, in the U.S., about 180 km downstream of Okanagan River.

“A good chunk of those fish in the Lower Columbia have survived that last dam and are making their way back to Canada so that is a very large return of sockeye coming back. One-third of that 477,000 are currently in Canada to date,” Bussanich said.

Sockeye salmon are an important part of syilx culture. Salmon is considered to be one of the four food chiefs from the Chaptikwl story called How Food was Given. Communal harvests in Osoyoos Lake are distributed to elders, single mothers and other people in need and the salmon also provide economic opportunities for syilx people, he said.

Sockeye salmon will spend the first year of their lives in Okanagan lakes before travelling out to sea. They typically return to spawn at four years old.

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The historic return can be attributed to financial backing for the program. The ONA's management programs including a hatchery in the South Okanagan, habitat restoration and ideal freshwater conditions, Bussanich said.

“The big one we didn’t expect is the marine survival. We’re seeing a four-fold increase compared to the all-year average,” he said, adding they expected to see 175,000 Okanagan salmon return to the Columbia River.

“We’re attributing it to the black box called the ocean and we can’t really get into the specifics with linking or associating that bump to any one cause,” Bussanich said.

Residents can see the sockeye return to Mission Creek in Kelowna, the Penticton Channel, Peachland Creek, Naramata Creek, Powers Creek, Six Mile Creek, and Okanagan River north of Oliver.

READ MORE: The best spots to see spawning salmon in the Interior

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